Even in the best of times – when you have one or more professional trainers working full-time to train employees at your place of business, for example – training new hires can be challenging. So, needless to say, if you are faced with the task of training a new remote employee, or providing additional training for one or more existing employees who work at remote locations, it can be even more daunting. Fortunately, there are several methods and tools that can help.

• Utilize webinars and videoconferencing: Keep your training the same, but change the methods you use. In a traditional training scenario, employees might attend training sessions onsite. Obviously, that’s not possible for remote workers, so utilize the most appropriate technological tools available to train your employees from a distance. Webinars are often a good choice if you need to train multiple telecommuters at the same time. If you’re working with a single employee or a small group, videoconferencing can work just as well. Just be sure to choose a tool that will allow your employees to interact with the trainer so they can ask questions and provide feedback throughout the session.
• Consider screen-sharing tools: While there’s no doubt that webinars and videoconferencing are excellent choices for many training situations, screen-sharing tools can be just as effective. This is particularly true if your training involves coaching an employee on how to use new software, for example. There are a variety of screen-sharing tools available that allow the trainer to have remote control over the employee’s workstation while talking to the employee over a phone line to guide him/her through the training session.
• Engage remote workers with periodic training: One of the biggest challenges in successfully managing a remote team is to keep telecommuters actively engaged with the business, management personnel, and their coworkers. Affording them the opportunity to periodically enhance their skillset and advance their careers by providing remote training is an excellent way to keep your telecommuters actively engaged.
• Fine tune your training efforts with employee feedback: The best way to find out how effective your training efforts are is to ask the people who have gone through it. Once your employees have completed their remote training sessions, ask them to assess the training and provide suggestions on how to improve it in the future.

Training is essential for both new and existing employees. Not only do these sessions serve to teach employees new skills, they are also an excellent way to keep your employees engaged and motivated. It’s easy for remote workers to become complacent and less productive over time. That’s just human nature. But periodic training can help to encourage employees to be more productive on a daily basis. And that’s exactly why MySammy was developed. Our cloud-based time measurement solution can help ensure that your remote workers are as productive as possible during business hours. And we accomplish this without the need for “spyware” or computer monitoring! Help your remote workers – and your business – succeed with MySammy!